Consumer Handbook to credit protection

Unsolicited Cards

It is illegal for card issuers to send you a credit card card unless you ask for or agree to receive one. However, a card issuer may send, without your request, a new card to replace an expiring one.

ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFERS

Instant Money On his way home last Friday night, John Jones realized he had e had no cash for the weekend. The bank was closed, but John had his bank debit card and the code to use it. He inserted the card into an automated teller machine outside the front door of the bank; then, using a number keyboard, he entered his code and pressed the buttons for a withdrawal of $50. John's cash was dispensed automatically from the machine, and his bank account was electronically debited for the $50 cash withdrawal. John's debit card is just one way to use electronic fund fund transfer (EFT) systems that allow payment between parties by substituting an electronic signal for cash or checks. Are we heading for a checkless society? Probably not. But a ut a dent in the number of paper checks in the country's banking system--or a reduction in the rate at which that number has been growing--is clearly one advantage to electronic banking. Today, the cost of moving checks through the banking system is m is estimated to be approximately 80 cents per check, including the costs of paper, printing, and mailing. Moreover, checks--except your own check presented at your own bank--take time to cash: time for delivery, endorsement, presentation to another person's bank, and winding through various stations in the check clearing system. Technology now can lower the costs of the payment mechanism and make i more efficient and convenient by reducing paperwork.

EFT in Operation

The national payment mechanism moves money between accounts in a in a fast, paperless way. These are some examples of EFT systems in operation:

Teller Machines (ATMs). Consumers can do their banking without hout the assistance of a teller, as john Jones did to get cash, or to make deposits, pay bills, or transfer funds from one account to another electronically. These machines are used with a debit or EFT card and a code, which is often called a personal identification numbe or "PIN."